Just a month ago, a bona fide Hollywood celebrity turned up to support President Joe Biden. The event, hosted by former DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, attracted George Clooney, Barbra Streisand and Julia Roberts.
Jimmy Kimmel moderated an interview with Biden and former President Barack Obama at the gathering at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Sheryl Lee Ralph sang and Jack Black entertained the star-studded crowd in an American flag jumpsuit.
The event raised more than $30 million, the largest single-night campaign fundraiser in Democratic history.
But behind the praise and laughter, cracks began to appear in the public facade.
Some of Hollywood's most powerful members, who had been staunch supporters of the president, harbored serious reservations about the 81-year-old's mental acuity.
At points during the event, Biden's responses rambled and Obama occasionally stepped in to redirect the conversation.
Then came Biden's disastrous debate performance, and those same industry stalwarts who had just been praising Biden started saying he shouldn't seek reelection.
“Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof, who attended the fundraiser, was among the first to publicly call for Biden to step aside. “Biden has to go and Democrats need to wake up” Biden wrote in a column for Deadline, adding that donors should hold off on checks until he did. Within days, others followed suit. Netflix co-founder and top Democratic donor Reed Hastings also called on Biden to end his reelection bid.
The most damaging blow came a week later, when Clooney wrote a harsh review. Opinion article to the New York Times, saying: “The Joe Biden I stood with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all saw at the debate.”
Clooney’s public criticism proved to be a tipping point and created a public relations disaster for the Biden campaign, said a close confidant of a senior Democratic official who was not authorized to speak publicly. Soon others, including actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, began expressing similar sentiments, contributing to the pressure that culminated in the incumbent president’s extraordinary decision to withdraw as the Democratic nominee.
The remarkable turn of events underscored the outsize role that Hollywood — long known as the Democratic Party’s “ATM” — plays in political campaigns and the money that fuels them.
“In the world of politics, money is what drives these things, and the fact that many in Hollywood closed their checkbooks had a very big impact,” said Steve Caplan, an adjunct professor of public relations and advertising at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Now, entertainment heavyweights are putting their money behind Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the White House. Hastings contributed $7 million to a super PAC supporting Harris, the largest donation she has ever made to a single candidate, said a person close to the Netflix co-founder who was not authorized to comment. The Information was first to report the donation.
“We are all behind Kamala and have been from the moment she announced her candidacy,” said Andy Spahn, a Los Angeles-based political consultant to media moguls like Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg. “There is tremendous enthusiasm and energy around Kamala’s candidacy. We are all behind her.”
Concern over Biden's mistakes
For months, Biden’s gaffes and missteps became hard to ignore. He fell while climbing the stairs to Air Force One; he confused Syria and Libya at a news conference; and he called Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump.”
While allies and critics alike began commenting, the campaign dismissed their concerns as isolated incidents, with Biden describing his debate performance as a “bad night.”
As Biden lost momentum and his failings became more publicly apparent, some supporters expressed frustration toward Katzenberg, a campaign co-chair, who assured them Biden was in his prime, going so far as to call his age a “superpower.”
Katzenberg began drawing comparisons to Harrison Ford starring in a new Indiana Jones movie at age 80 and to Mick Jagger touring with the Rolling Stones, also turning 80, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
Katzenberg declined to comment.
But Biden's lackluster approval ratings and an unmistakable enthusiasm gap continued apace, particularly among celebrities, who were not quick to endorse the campaign.
Even before the debate, it was difficult to get industry players to publicly endorse Biden, according to someone who works closely with celebrity representatives and was not authorized to speak publicly.
“There was a general lack of enthusiasm. Some wanted to bury their heads in the sand, and there was a legitimate group of people who felt there was a lack of alignment of values with what was happening in the Middle East and a larger group who didn’t see the benefit of speaking out,” this person said. “It was extremely difficult, even with the diehards.”
Although Clooney and others had taken public positions, this person said there were a series of private conversations underway between about 40 prominent artists and campaign leaders.
Grammy-winning singer John Legend shared concerns about Biden's viability in an interview.
“There would be a lot of challenges to overcome if we were to stick with Biden and defeat Trump with him as our nominee,” Legend told the Times. “For months, the American people told us they didn’t like either option.”
Within days of each other, Disney heiress Abigail Disney and billionaire media mogul Barry Diller announced they would suspend all financial support for Biden's campaign.
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Endeavor chief Ari Emanuel criticized Biden's advisers for their lack of candor about his health and blasted the president for backtracking on his promise to pass the baton after one term.
“I had a father who died at 92, but at 81 I took his car away from him, and it was a very easy test for me,” said Emanuel, whose brother Rahm Emanuel served as Obama’s White House chief of staff.. “If you were driving from downtown Beverly Hills to Malibu, would you want Biden to do it at night?”
A dramatic shift towards Harris
On Sunday, Biden announced that he would not continue as the Democratic candidate and endorsed Harris.
It was as if the tide had turned, at least in Hollywood.
“Oh, my goodness. People, and I mean this with sincerity, are excited. They're not just happy, they're thrilled,” said Donna Bojarsky, a longtime Democratic political consultant and co-founder of a nonprofit dedicated to fostering civic engagement in Los Angeles. “I haven't seen this much enthusiasm since Barack Obama or Joe Biden.” [2020] Elections… And only now do we realise how incredibly difficult and depressing the situation was before. Now it is as if an anvil has been lifted.
Within 24 hours, a growing list of A-list names from film, television, fashion, music and media, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Spike Lee, Questlove and Ariana Grande, came out in support of Harris, who is widely expected to take over as her party's presidential nominee. Beyoncé has given Harris permission to use her song “Freedom” for her presidential campaign.
“There is a growing enthusiasm, the feeling is palpable,” Legend said. “People are feeling an optimism that they didn’t feel before and that allows us to take advantage of this moment to achieve victory.”
Many of those who had criticized Biden and his advisers are now rallying around Harris, whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is a prominent Los Angeles entertainment lawyer.
Topping the list was Clooney, who in a statement to CNN praised Biden for exhibiting “true leadership” and added: “We are all very excited to do everything we can to support Vice President Harris in her historic quest.”
“An election once characterized by fear and grim resignation is now characterized by the excitement of possibility,” Lindelof wrote in an email to The Times, adding that he has been a “huge fan” of Harris since she first ran for California attorney general in 2010. “I have yet to speak to a single person who has not been deeply impressed by everything she has said … during this emotionally intense and complicated time. We are tremendously inspired by this potential candidacy and will donate accordingly.”
As the praise and recommendations came in, so did the money.
Spahn, the political consultant, noted that Harris raised $81 million in the first 24 hours after Biden announced he would not seek reelection, a record-breaking haul. “There will be more,” Spahn said.
Diller told The Times that he and his wife, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, plan to give “the maximum” allowed by federal law to the new Democratic presidential nominee.
“I think it was inevitable,” he said of Biden’s resignation, noting that his preferred Democratic candidate is Harris, whom he called “qualified and competent.”
And Hollywood is gearing up for another glitzy, star-studded fundraiser, likely to take place before the Democratic National Convention next month in Chicago, according to two people with knowledge of the event.
“The last 24 hours have been very exciting: Sign me up, where can I contribute, how can I get involved?” said Wendy Greuel, a former Los Angeles city comptroller who worked in President Bill Clinton’s administration and for the entertainment company DreamWorks SKG. “Whether it’s the entertainment industry or activists, it’s been an encouragement for people to get involved or get involved again.”
He added that Democrats were encouraged by the fact that a decision had been made and that there was a goal to pursue.
“The sense of limbo was challenging,” Greuel said. “The excitement is that we have a plan. We are on a mission to defeat Donald Trump and we are supporting Vice President Kamala Harris for president of the United States. It’s a shot in the arm. People appreciate that this is the path to having a Democratic candidate and everyone is rowing in the same direction.”
Times staff writer Wendy Lee contributed to this report.
